Digest urth.v028.n178

Nigel Price · 08 Apr 2000, 19:44 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: Nigel Price <NigelPrice1 at compuserve.com>
Subject: (urth) Digest urth.v028.n178
Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2000 19:44:30
Message-ID: <urth-v0028-0892 at digest.urth.net>
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Tony Ellis wrote:

>>I've got as far as 1-2-3 For Me. I'd just like to say that I agree 101%
>>with William H. Ansley's view that this is a ghost story, pure and
>>simple. In particular it's an M.R. Jamesian ghost story, and I was a
>>little surprised to see no one else suggest this connection. For me
>>there's a definite sly wink in the direction of James's classic "Oh
>>Whistle, and I'll Come To You, My Lad!" Especially when you compare the
>>two titles: Wolfe's reads like a deliberately cheeky, modernistic
>>response to the Master. Why whistle, when you can tone-dial?

Um...is it OK if I point out that back on the 14th of March, I wrote to
this list to say:

        Has anyone else suggested yet that "One-Two-Three for Me"=20
        is in some rather tenuous respects a science-fictional retelling of

        M R James' classic ghost story, "Oh, whistle, and I'll come to you,
my lad"? =20
        Instead of the antique whistle in James' story, the vindictive
"ghost" is=20
        summoned by a call on an ancient cell phone, and instead of a thing
of=20
        wind and cloth, the "ghost" is a drug dealer.  Both stories feature
minor=20
        excavation and archaeology, and if the titles aren't really that
similar,=20
        they do at least share the common feature of being the sinisterly=20
        seductive promises of the mysterious evil figures summoned in each
story.

So, yes, Tony, I'm with you all the way on this one!

Nigel (who is horribly hairy, though sadly not as skeletal as once was, and
seen only fleetingly on the list these days...)

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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